


we're strangers till now

by Lizzen



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brainwashing, Dark, F/F, birds die in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 22:46:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1566758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizzen/pseuds/Lizzen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: Mulan and Aurora are swept up in the original dark curse. As are Maleficent’s sleeper agents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we're strangers till now

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Netgirl_y2k](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Netgirl_y2k/gifts).



> mil besos to my g & a & v

**I.**

Before: "Go, and do not fail me," Maleficent said. 

Before: Aurora pressed her finger to the sharp spindle, and fell into a cursed sleep.

Before: Mulan urged her horse faster to catch up with Phillip. She owed him her fealty for the rest of her days. Him, and the cursed princess he loved.

*  
Under the guise of billowing smoke, the dark curse hits them all. No horse could outrun it, no magic could protect them from it. Darkness fills their lungs, seeps into their ears, tears out their will. 

*  
 _everything you love, everything all of you love, will be taken from you forever_

*  
The warrior wakes aching from nightmares of her tours in Afghanistan. Jiayi Ping keeps lean and sharp, ready for battle; in her periphery, she sees snipers aiming at her head, and IEDs in the middle of the road. She spends her days in soft pants, teaching yoga and talking to Dr. Hopper at her daily scheduled 2 p.m. appointment. When she looks down at her hands, she sees the tremor in her bones that she can't seem to shake. 

The princess pricks herself on needles for a living now; a seamstress for hire. Madam Mayor's smile is all teeth every time she demands the stitches be ripped out and replaced with better ones. Dawn Merryweather nods her head in submission and promises to do better next time.

The dark fairy is a dragon under the clock tower. Her dungeon thunders with her rage and frustration.

*  
Every day is the same. There are small variations, of course, but the curse keeps every soul sedate in a constant monotony of routine. 

*  
Once a year, however, a sleeper awakens. 

**II.**

**Year one:**

"Miss Ping," Leroy says, breathing hard, "I don't feel mysterious like the dark side of the moon yet."

Jiayi smiles at him, and corrects his pose with her hand. "Try it again."

Her class is sweating now, and she orders them into the next position. 

*  
She is walking home from class, thinking about a mission in Gulmira, when she sees him.

There's a man trailing the seamstress, Madam Mayor's seamstress. He looks trained, and his hand is suspiciously inside his jacket. Jiayi thinks of blood against the desert sand, and her focus narrows. 

When the seamstress turns a corner, Jiayi has the man in her arms. With an expert twist of her hands, there is the faint sound of twigs breaking.

The man slumps against her and she remembers something: the seamstress is named after the sun. 

*  
She buries the body in the woods, curious at how familiar it seems (this wasn't how she did this overseas). She goes home, dreams of riding a horse towards a castle with black smoke billowing behind her.

-  
 **Year two:**

Every day is the same. 

Jiayi walks home from class, unnerved from today's session with Dr. Hopper; she sees the seamstress, sees Dawn walk home alone. 

Every day is the same. Except: down to the day a year ago, a man emerges from the shadows to follow in Dawn's light footsteps. It's a different man, but the same stalking gait.

Jiayi murders him, this time with a knife in his belly and her hand over his mouth, his breath hot on her skin. She doesn't feel bothered that she never asked his intentions; she just knew.

She buries the body in the woods. In the shower afterwards, she brings herself off so hard and fast, she has to brace her hands against the shower walls to catch her breath.

-  
 **Year three:**

Her routine adjusts; she spends much of her time watching Dawn, without much thought about why. 

Dawn wakes up at 6 a.m., pads into her bathroom, comes out 30 minutes later looking smartly put together, walks to work, studiously sews several bespoke items for Madam Mayor, makes a personal delivery to city hall, returns crestfallen, finishes work at 5 p.m., walks home, eats dinner alone, reads a book, puts on cotton pajamas, is in bed by 9:30 p.m., often wakes up from nightmares, wakes up at 6 a.m. Repeat.

Jiayi keeps her distance, of course; believes what she's doing is good. (In between the beats of her heart, she hopes another man will come; and she believes what she plans to do to him is good.)

On the anniversary, she kills the man before he can fall into Dawn's shadow.

Her blood thrums with heat; a pleasure that rises from her toes, gives strength to the sinews of her knees, settles deeply in her belly, and lifts up and up through her chest. She breathes out and wonders if there is anything that pleases her more than holding a man’s life in her hands, knowing she will end it.

-  
 **Year five:**

Jiayi spends her nights watching Dawn sleep. She remembers, vaguely, that a man will come and try to kill her. She thinks: _the world will not be this way within the reach of my arm_. She thinks: _I swore to protect you_. She sometimes watches through a window; sometimes from within the room itself in the shadow. 

Dawn is restless in the night. (Her dreams are of fire and flame, and of her prince who saves her from a dragon and a raven). 

Jiayi watches; is happy the woman is alive.

*  
( _Go, and do not fail me_. John works as a mechanic, spends his days with his hands gripping grease and steel. At last: a spark ignites behind his eyes, and there's a lingering magic in his veins put there years and years ago. He blinks and goes to wash up. There's knife work to do.

Maleficent didn't know what Regina would do; but she did make plans for every variation.)

*  
When she buries the body, Jiayi considers the fact that she has never spoken a word to this woman she's saved. She wonders how much Dawn knows. 

-  
 **Year ten:**

It's a close call this year.

Jiayi loses him and he grabs Dawn by the hair, dragging her to the ground, and raising a knife over her trembling flesh.

Jiayi kills him, messily. Slowly. Dawn watches, her dark eyes wide.

"You're a girl." She seems only moderately surprised. 

"Woman," Jiayi says. "Go home."

*  
Dawn's fantasies take a different turn.

-  
 **Year eleven:**

Jiayi does not remember the recluse on the edge of the woods attending her class, but the dark curse keeps her docile. She smiles and takes down his information.

"I'm Jiayi," she says, and the name seems wrong in her mouth.

"Do you know?" he asks. (Jefferson watches Grace so closely, he knows the routine of every day. One day a year, the vet with the body of a knight appears near his house and buries a body.)

"Know what?" Jiayi says. 

"Do you know we are cursed?" he asks.

She looks up into his eyes and tilts her head to the side. 

(Jefferson breathes out his disappointment.)

*  
She strangles the man this year, and considers that maybe she _is_ cursed.

*  
Dawn is pretty certain someone is watching her, and sometimes she catches a glimpse of dark hair. It's a strange, warm, unfamiliar feeling; she feels safe. 

-  
 **Year fourteen:**

Time moves slowly, sluggishly, and no one really notices. 

Every day is the same.

(Except: Dawn knows that when the sun rises higher over the sky, a man will try to kill her and a woman will tear him apart. She doesn't know why, doesn't want to know why.)

Jiayi doesn't realize that Dawn is waiting for her once she's finished the job. The man's last breath is still hot and wet against her hand and she starts when she sees movement in the periphery of her left eye. 

With her hands slightly raised, Dawn says: "Can I make you some tea?" They're outside her house. There's a body to tend to, and Dawn looks expectantly. 

Jiayi nods. 

(The body is moved to the backyard, for now.)

Blinking into the twilight, Jiayi sits at Dawn's kitchen table, watching how graceful Dawn is as she pulls out some cheese, bread, some homemade jam. The tea kettle heats up. 

Dawn takes Jiayi's hands in hers. There is a little bit of blood on along Jiayi's index and ring finger on her right hand. "Thank you," Dawn says, and she kisses Jiayi's knuckles. 

The world seems to spin.

"Tell me how it makes you feel," Dawn says. Jiayi can feel her heartbeat in her mouth; it's erratic.

"I feel—" she starts and then brushes her fingers along Dawn's face. Two of her fingers slide across Dawn's lips. 

"It makes me feel powerful," she says. 

Dawn grabs her wrist, pushes those fingers into her mouth. Sucks slowly. 

Jiayi's mouth opens, breathes in air. 

Slowly, Dawn's lips part and she moves to kiss Jiayi's wrist; biting the sensitive skin there. Her eyes never leave Jiayi's. 

And the kettle boils. With a shy smile, Dawn lets go, and moves towards it. 

When she turns around Jiayi has left.

-  
 **Year fifteen:**

_Do you know we are cursed?_

*  
In the dark, Jiayi straddles the sleeping woman, and stares wordlessly at her long after Dawn wakes, startled but quiet. 

"I don't know why I save you," Jiayi whispers. "Why are you important to me?"

Dawn doesn't tremble. "I don't know."

Lifting herself up on her elbows, Dawn closes the distance between them, her breath on Jiayi's mouth. "I'm grateful," she says, and leans in closer.

Jiayi doesn't move; she can't move. Dawn presses the sweetest, strangest kiss to her lips and then leans back against her pillows. Her eyes are dark, and then she closes them. 

Frozen in place, her mind is a mess of thoughts. She stays until Dawn's breathing evens out.

-  
 **Year sixteen:**

This time, it's different. Jiayi turns the corner and the man has his hands around Dawn's neck (Dawn intentionally walked slow; intentionally turned when he cleared his throat). Jiayi rips him away and tears him apart. 

There's blood on Jiayi's face when she turns and Dawn is staring at her; the look is more predatory than Jiayi is comfortable with.

"Let me help you," she says. (Dawn thinks: _this time_ ; which doesn't make any sense.)

*  
After they bury the body, Dawn pushes Jiayi down into the dirt to kiss her, sweat and dirt swirling on their skin.

Her fingers, rough from work, grip Jiayi's wrists tight. "Have you done this before?" she asks.

The word slides out of her mouth. "No."

Dawn kisses her again, open mouthed kisses all warm and wet. Jiayi holds on desperately, overwhelmed by her own desire. 

*  
They clean up at Jiayi's place. More accurately, Jiayi cleans herself and then tends to Dawn. In the cold light of her bathroom, control surges back into her veins. 

Their dirty clothes are pooled on the floor, and they barely fit into the shower together, but Jiayi is pretty flexible. With care, she washes the day's sweat and the evening's dirt off of Dawn's skin, and then takes extra care with her golden hair. It's easy, strangely easy to treat her like a precious object. She avoids her kisses, pushes her fingers away when they wander. Dawn's eyes lower, her cheeks slightly pink, and obeys.

Later: she pushes Dawn onto the bed, stomach down. With one hand holding her still, she spreads Dawn's legs and slides her fingers up until she makes purchase. Dawn's gasp is muffled in the bed covers, and Jiayi fucks in her fingers several times before finding her clit. She lets out a whimper of her own; Dawn is so wet, so fucking wet, and she is breathing soft wordless cries. The slickness covers her fingers and she leans down to kiss Dawn's skin as she fucks her. She leaves a suck mark right on Dawn's ass as her gasps build into a lingering moan. 

Jiayi flips her over just before Dawn comes, and takes in the view. Dawn squirms, her mouth open and chest rising and falling as she breathes. "You're so beautiful," she says, and pushes Dawn's legs further apart to get in closer to lick that slick cunt, and run her tongue against Dawn's clit until she's lost. 

It's like this many more times; Jiayi fucks her again and again before she'll allow Dawn (exhausted, numb, euphoric) to touch her. 

When she finally allows herself to come, "Aurora," is the name on Jiayi's lips. Dawn smiles, accepting it. Kisses the name away.

*  
The next day, as ever, they go about business as usual. If Dawn's cheeks flush when she sees Miss Ping walk down Main Street, it's probably because of the summer heat. 

-  
 **Year twenty:**

Jiayi makes quick work of the assassin and the body is still warm when Dawn presses herself against Jiayi for a kiss. They don't linger, but they do kiss enough to get breathless. 

*  
Dawn likes being held down, told what to do. Jiayi likes how Dawn shudders when she comes. 

At some point, between the murder and the break of day, Jiayi swears: "I hope you remember this, remember all of this tomorrow, I want you to feel me, here, and here, and here. I want you to ache for me when this is over."

Dawn promises over and over and over that she will, oh she will. 

*  
She almost forgets to bury the body this year.

*  
The next day, they both don't quite remember what happened. Dawn walks with a slight limp, but doesn't question why she's sore. Jiayi loses sleep, but doesn't question why her thoughts are of slaughter. 

-  
 **Year twenty eight:**

A yellow bug drives into Storybrooke and soon after, everything changes.

**III.**

Now: Jiayi kills a man every day, sometimes two. Her heart grows darker with every kill, but it's worth it so that Dawn still breathes. 

There is more thought now as to the why. (The dark curse is losing its potency.) In his ear, Jiayi murmurs, "who sends you?" and he gives up "Maleficent" before she snaps his neck. 

Jiayi ponders this. "Who the fuck is Maleficent?"

*  
Now: they don't fuck once a year now; it's more like once a day. Dawn's appetite is intense, and Jiayi cannot refuse her. 

Over breakfast, Dawn looks up at her and says, without question: "You love me." 

Jiayi blinks; she hasn't considered this at all. 

"Deny it all you want, I know love when I see it." 

There is something new and authoritative about Dawn, and Jiayi feels a heat pool in her belly, pleased.

*  
Memory is strange now that the Savior walks the streets. Things bleed through. 

Jiayi starts a new class, and several of Storybrooke's denizens come to learn how to fight. 

Dawn starts talking back to Madam Mayor, and walks with an even, queenly gait. 

Jiayi remembers China differently now, which confuses her. Battles blur; and her hand aches for her sword, the strongest weapon in all the realms. She remembers swearing her fealty to men, though she does not remember their faces. She remembers making a promise to protect a beautiful princess, with golden hair and red, red lips. 

Dawn remembers rooms filled with fire and flame, and that a dark fairy owns her life. 

*  
One night, underneath the covers: "Did I know you before?" Dawn asks. _Before what_ , they both think but don't ask. 

"You were my mission." Jiayi kisses her eyelids. 

"You were my knight." Dawn corrects, and Jiayi nods, accepting this. 

**IV.**

The Savior takes up her father's sword and lets it fly swift and sure; her aim is true. 

The Savior presses her lips to her son's forehead as the shards of her heart ache, and the dark curse breaks.

*  
Mulan opens her mouth and nothing comes out; she's naked in bed with her arms full of a sleeping princess, dead to the world. 

Some curses just live in hibernation, waiting patiently.

(Maleficent made plans for every variation.)

Panic is insidious and familiar to her, and she works through it as best she can. Clothes first for the cursed princess; then around her own body. 

When she staggers outside to find a host of others, crying and clutching, she thinks of the recluse's words and wonders if she'll ever feel right again. 

*  
There's no sign of Phillip in town; no proper beloved prince to kiss the sleeping beauty back to life.

(There was no knight to guard him when Maleficent's agents woke.)

There's no one here that Mulan knows; no ally to confide in. She's alone.

*  
She digs up the bodies in the woods, unsure of anything and everything; of her own memory, of her own mind.

Each pile of dirt covers a raven in various stages of decomposition. Feathers and bone.

Mulan stares at her hands and remembers the blood, the sounds of twigs, the way a knife felt in her hand. She wretches into the ground until there's nothing left.

*  
Jefferson finds her there after dark and sits next to her.

"I'm Mulan," she says at last, and the name is right no matter how wrong she feels. 

He nods. "Jefferson."

"I kept her safe," she says. And dry heaves again.

*  
Mulan returns to the house. Aurora is still as stone on the bed. She runs her fingers through her hair and slides her fingers down Aurora’s soft cheek. 

She doesn't even think about it now, just leans in, and kisses those red lips, red as a rose. 

The rippling rainbow band of the curse being broken expands out from the place where their lips met, making the ground beneath them shake slightly. Something deep inside both of them heals. 

Aurora opens her eyes. Blinks. Runs her tongue along her lower lip. 

She looks up at Mulan's face and, with confusion in her eyes and a rosy glow in her cheeks, Aurora says: "I know you."

Mulan lets out a shaky breath. "Your highness." 

Those long thin fingers curl around Mulan's shoulders and the princess pulls her closer. "Kiss me again."

What else is Mulan to do?

**V.**

Queen Aurora rules with surety and kindness. Her people love her, honor her. 

Mulan, ever her knight, keeps a watchful eye on the horizon, and an ear to the ground.

Maleficent may have been vanquished in Storybrooke; but whoever heard of a witch who really died?

**Author's Note:**

> The origin of this idea came from thinking of a serial killer au and then winter soldier happened, and then all I wanted was a winter soldier au. ??? IDK IDK IDK IDK IDK IDK. This was fun.


End file.
